"Hey, I just signed up for XYZ. I really like it. I think you would like it too. Click here to sign up."Most likely, you turn a blind eye and ignore it. But what if it came from your inner circle or closest friends? Or, what if it was from one of your buddies, who just last week, was telling you about the latest and greatest XYZ he got for Christmas. You'd probably pay a bit closer attention to this email.
Your curiosity gets the best of you so you click to see what it's all about, get excited and sign up or make a purchase, and as your enthusiasm boils over, you tell all your friends about it. Congratulations - you have just tapped into the "power of testimony"!
Testimonials, or often referred to as refer-a-friend or word-of-mouth marketing, are nothing new. Sure, we could look back to the days when carrier pigeons were used to spread the word to the next town or village, but that would be going too far back.
Consider examples like Tupperware, Avon, or Amway. Everyone's heard of the infamous "Tupperware" or "Avon" parties, right? What has made these such a hit is the exclusive opportunity for hosts to invite their family and friends to come experience the products for themselves and hear from others' "testimony". Amway went a similar route, where they encourage their dealers to try out the products and then sell to their family and friends and grow from there. Love 'em or hate 'em, all 3 of these companies are recognized leaders in their individual industries and can attribute much of their success to the power of testimony.
But you're probably more interested in more current or relative Web 2.0 examples, right?. Look no further than Hotmail or Facebook. Both of these companies started out as relative unknowns, but knew they had a product their users would tell others about. They created innovative ways to tap into the power of testimony and allow their users to spread the word. And, in a short period of time, both experienced exponential user growth.
In the summer of 1996, Hotmail launched their webmail service, and added a simple tag line at the bottom of each email sent.
"P.S. I love you. Get your free email at HoTMaiL."Except, they eventually ditched the "P.S. I love you" part, as it was a bit cheesy. But it worked! Hotmail immediately saw an average of 3,000 users signing up per day, had 750,000 users by Labor Day, and the growth kept compounding. When they were eventually acquired by Microsoft at the end of 1997, Hotmail had roughly 8.5 million users signed up. Who wouldn't want that kind of growth in 18 months?
Facebook started out as a social network amongst students to connect them across campuses. When Facebook decided to take the site public outside the campus (2006), they added an "invite your friends" feature at the final stage of the sign-up process. User growth immediately took off. Today, Facebook reports on their site they have over 350 million users signed up. If you are a Facebook user, you most likely signed up from one of these referral email invite.
So, as you can see, the "power of testimony" can be quite powerful. Your users are your best salespeople. If you already have a user base, you need to give them an outlet to tell others about you. What's the worst that could happen? Maybe a few million more users?